Israeli Delegation Secretly Visited Egypt to Calm Tensions: Report

On Sunday, the London-based al-Araby al-Jadeed cited a radio station operated by the Israeli army as saying Avi Gil, the Military Secretary of Prime Minister Yair Lapid, heading a delegation that included senior military officials, visited Egypt a week ago.

The report said the visit was aimed to find “solutions” to disputes that erupted between the two sides.

The radio station said the intensified Israeli arrest campaigns and raids in the occupied West Bank that constituted a breach of a pledge the regime made following Egyptian mediation efforts aimed to end the latest Israeli military aggression on the Gaza Strip were one of the issues that heightened tensions between the two sides.

Israel launched airstrikes on the Gaza Strip on August 5. The raid lasted for three consecutive days, martyring dozens of people, including 17 children and top members of Islamic Jihad. Hundreds more were also injured during the Israeli aggression. In response to the Israeli onslaught on Gaza, Islamic Jihad fired hundreds of rockets at the Israeli-Occupied Territories, prompting the regime in Tel Aviv to accept an Egyptian-brokered ceasefire.

The Israeli radio station also said the Israeli decision to release Palestinian prisoner Khalil Awawdeh who was on hunger strike for more than five months came as part of efforts aimed to ease tensions with Cairo, saying that the decision was made in coordination with Cairo.

According to the report, Israel has also intensified its efforts to locate a mass grave for dozens of Egyptian soldiers who were killed in the vicinity of al-Quds during the 1967 war in order to ease tensions with Egypt.

That comes as the recent Israeli media reports that revealed that at least 20 Egyptian soldiers were burnt alive and buried in an unmarked mass grave in the area of Latrun, West of al-Quds, raised the ire of the Egyptian public.